International Council of Women at its executive meeting on June 1st in Barcelona, has viewed Tamra Raven’s Proposal: The GSTM is a new metric for verification of global carbon in air, water, soil, and plants.

We propose that UNESCO adopt this project for global distribution and beginning of transparent spatial thinking.

UNESCO’s adoption of this proposal enables early warning and risk assessment for natural disasters and related issues at a scale of 1m3:10km3x2 (x,y,z,t). This information should be part of the curriculum for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), a process coming out of UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) Rio 1992.  The Geocoded Spatial Transparent Metric (GSTM 10km3x2 [x,y,z,t])  is a verification and mapping tool for monitoring global carbon and ecological restoration globally.  Its use is suggested beginning in Kindergarten and building on local data and interests ‘the Kindergarten file GSTM’ which amplifies and scales to university, graduate studies and local municipality level data sets.  GSTM is offered as a tool for 'reseeing' the local.  K12 use of Millennium Ecological Assessment (MEA) indicators is suggested. 

Global climate change is one of the most serious challenges facing us today. More than one-third of the world's population lives within 60 miles of a coastline and thirteen of the world’s twenty largest cities are located on a coast.   In addition, these cities are particularly vulnerable to such long-term effects of global warming as sea-level rise, flooding, severe storms, drought and local water shortages.  Globally, overcrowding and haphazard growth of our cities and towns change local vegetation and water availability. The pressure on natural resources continues locally.

GSTM Early Warning and Risk Assessment: Driven by the increasing need to overcome these challenges and to mitigate these life-threatening risks, education institutions, scientific communities, businesses, and government are aggressively seeking solutions for their elimination. How can we effectively and efficiently observe, monitor, analyze, and mitigate these challenges? What kinds of tools are available to us, and how can they be implemented in ways that will resolve these challenges to both preserve present and future generations?  The Geocoded Spatial Transparent Metric maps locally at 10km3x2 and is a new scale to help us think spatial₁ and thus 'resee' the local.

GSTM K12 Systems:  Science teaches us that the universe is computational and therefore can be mapped. That simply means that our world can be reduced into quantifiable mathematical operations that can be logically calculated in such a way as to arrive at a variety of advanced determinations, so that intelligent informed decisions can be made to construct and implement sensible and effective solutions to local quality of life issues: air, water, human health and biodiversity.  The Geocoded Spatial Transparent Metric is recommended for monitoring carbon in air, soil, water, and biomass indexed to species and vegetation sets.  It is recommended that K12 students GPS endemic₂ plant species globally and enter the geographic and spatial information relevant for plant species verifiable and sustainable survival under CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) guidelines.  BIODEPTH and other work on photosynthetic complementarity suggest the important role of local plant species diversity in the long term or sustainable stewardship of vegetation globally.  GSTM can aid in monitoring and managing sustainable carbon sinks globally.  Sensible watershed or catchment management depends on local vegetation management and the reconnection of plant cover on soil for habitat corridors and local ecosystem function.

GSTM Local: Technology tools designed for these types of action are called remote sensing. What is remote sensing?  It is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object.  The term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth (both on the surface, in the atmosphere, ocean, fresh water bodies, and beneath the soil by means of propagated signals such as electromagnetic radiation emitted from aircraft or satellites). Many of these conventional tools are radars that are associated with air traffic control, early warning systems NOAA, and large-scale meteorological data.

GSTM Transparency:  There has been a vast improvement in access to remotely sensed data in recent years. This revolution of information is the result of investment in new technology by governments and industry, rapid developments in computing power and storage, and easy dissemination of data over the Internet. Today, remotely sensed data are available to virtually anyone with a desktop computer or smart phone apps.

GSTM Predictions:  Forest fires ravaging southern California, foot-and-mouth disease devastating the British livestock industry, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) — all of these disasters have at least one thing in common: the role played by geospatial analysts who search and mine satellite images for information to help authorities make crucial decisions. By combining layers of spatially referenced data called geographic information systems (GIS) with remotely sensed aerial or satellite images, these high-tech geographers have turned computer mapping into a powerful decision-making tool.

GSTM Planning: In the field of planning and monitoring of the natural resources of our planet, it is now clear to professionals in the fields of geology, environmental sciences, cartography, sociology, urban planning, agriculture, hydrology, meteorology, resource management, military planning and human rights watch, that spatial information technology provides a powerful organization and analytical tool for decision-making.  Coastal and fresh water ecosystem management through the use of remote sensing technology, such as GIS, is immensely important for the sustainable use, development and protection of the coastal and marine areas and resources, and the monitoring of land based pollution (UNCLOS).

GSTM Verification and local context:  Using these remote sensing technologies, we could set international or national goals for indicators a variety of variables, for example, of C02 or even pollen levels, to be measured, at a small scale, like one meter cubed (1m3:10km3x2).  Then, through some type of user-friendly remote sensing verification tool, we could enter data about our local community area, on the levels of C02, for example, and map our progress towards promoting sustainability at a local level (Think Globally, Act Locally).  By familiarizing ourselves with the GSTM mapping tool and becoming more aware of what goes on in our local environment,  our ten kilometer cube stacked, we would get better at understanding what is happening on a global scale, near and remote GSTM sets,  and see how we are all interconnected.  By spatially mapping these and varied conditions through remote sensing verification tools, we could provide critical contextual information of the local environment that would help us change government policies and promote best practices in health and the environment at a local level.  We could go beyond latitude and longitude and use our human ability to think spatially.

May 2011 Commission on Sustainable Development takes places as usual at the United Nations in New York City.  Two weeks...but this one is leading up to RIO20 -6-2012-RIO DE JANERO, BRAZIL, the summit--twenty years after UNCED.  UNFCCC

CBD CCD Agenda 21--- The Earth Charter . November 1, 2011 DUE DATE Multistakeholder Dialogue Input to :RIO20 ‘process’.

I spoke across the street at The Church Center on Geocoded Spatial Transparent Metric (GSTM) as a verification tool for monitoring global carbon UNDER UNFCCC.  

GSTM---the global metric which means to “resee” AT GSTM SPATIAL SCALE, the local ecology, environment and make it once again a neighborhood at the rectangular volumetric scale of ten kilometer cube stacked upon a ten kilometer cube.